Bulbophyllum caniceps Hermans, Sieder & Andriant. 2021 SECTION Ptiloglossum Lindl. 1862

Photo by © Anton Seider and Kew Bulletin volume 76, pages1–38 2021; New species and nomenclatural changes in Bulbophyllum (Orchidaceae) from Madagascar Johan Hermans, Alexander Gamisch, Landy Rajaovelona, Gunter A. Fischer, Phillip Cribb, Anton Sieder & Jacky Andriantiana 2021

Common Name The Dog's Head Bulbophyllum [refers to the resemblance of the flower to the head of a fluffy dog with a red tongue]

Flower Size .14" [3.5 mm]

Found in southeastern and northeastern Madagascar in humid evergreen forest submerged in moss at elevations around 1000 meters as a mini-miniature sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with a very short branching rhizome giving rise to partly overlapping, globose, compressed into a flattened rounded disk, pale green pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, somewhat coriaceous, flat, obovate, arising in the center of the pseudobulb, tip emarginate, pale green, base narrowed into a short petiolate base leaf that blooms in the summer on an erect to arching, terete, emerging from beneath the pseudobulb, peduncle slender, reddish-brown, provided with 3 to 4 attenuate sheaths, rachis short, .16 to .24" [4 to 6 mm] long, red, c. .6" [15 mm] long overall, 1 to 3 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate-attenuate, slightly serrate at the tip, dark pink, shorter than the ovary floral bracts

"Bulbophyllum caniceps shares the plant habit and inflorescence characteristics with B. moldenkeanum A.D.Hawkes from NE Madagascar; it has a somewhat similar lip and stelidia but in B. caniceps the sepals are longly caudate (vs acute) and about half the size, the petals shorter and lanceolate (vs linear) and the anther with a small swelling (vs a large rectangular appendage). It has a similar habit, inflorescence, flower size, serrate petals and falcate stelidia to the phylogenetically distantly related B. bryophilum Hermans from NW Madagascar but in B. caniceps the sepals are more longly caudate (vs acuminate), the lip lanceolate-elliptic (vs oblong-ligulate) with the surface verrucose and the margins hirsute (vs densely papillose), the stelidia are simple (vs bidentate) and a little shorter." Hermans, Sieder & Andriant. 2021

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; * Kew Bulletin volume 76, pages 1–38 2021; New species and nomenclatural changes in Bulbophyllum (Orchidaceae) from Madagascar Johan Hermans, Alexander Gamisch, Landy Rajaovelona, Gunter A. Fischer, Phillip Cribb, Anton Sieder & Jacky Andriantiana 2021 drawing/photo fide

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